One of the most worrying signs from the latest batch of economic data is that the global recession might be reappearing. Central banks around the world have been attempting to fuel their economies through massive stimulus, yet these efforts appear to be failing.

What Others Are Reading : 2013 US Financial Crisis

Perhaps the biggest foreign-policy story of the past decade, thoroughly overlooked by the American media after 9/11 and its subsequent monomaniacal focus on terrorism, security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the fact that Latin America has essentially moved away from Washington's influence.

“We take the view that we don’t need to make a further effort.”

So said Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg’s Finance Minister, following a meeting of European financial bigwigs in Brussels on Monday.

Because of the burgeoning global recession, the coming months and years will be very interesting and perilous times. For investors, safe havens such as U.S. Treasury debt, U.S. blue chip stocks and bonds and high-quality municipal debt may do better and for a longer period of time than underlying fundamentals would seem to dictate.